Ahern defends proposed health board abolition

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has defended the Government's plans to abolish Ireland's health boards and replace them with four executive bodies.

In the Dail this morning, opposition parties said the proposed reform would do nothing to alleviate the problems caused by six years of mismanagement by the Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrats coalition.

However, Mr Ahern insisted that the reforms would improve patient care, while also securing value for the money invested in health.

"Today is an important day for the Irish health service and what today is about is trying to make sure that we can do more for our patients, that we can do more for patient care, that we can get better value for money that we put into our health service, that we can have a better management system and a more accountable system," he said.